HERC: hosted by Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust

Hertfordshire

Environmental

Records Centre

Privacy policy

This policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use our website or get in touch with us. If you have any questions please call our office and we will be happy to help.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you when you make a data enquiry or place an order for our services. We may also collect information when you complete surveys, provide feedback or reviews, or send us enquiries. This may cover anything from your contact and delivery details to payment information.

We also collect information about your use of our websites, and how you arrived at our website in the first place. This can include what links you've viewed or clicked on to reach us, or any search terms you've used. We can also see which pages of our website have been viewed by you and for how long. All this information helps to tell us what content is popular with our customers so we can prioritise it. Online, we mostly use cookies to collect this information about you.

Cookies

New European privacy laws now require websites to obtain consent when placing 'cookies' on your computer, mobile or other device. Cookies are used all over the web for a variety of reasons - from enabling basic functionality to help the web remember your preferences, to creating detailed profiles of your browsing activity. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) published guidance on changes to the rules, to clarify how websites should obtain user consent for cookies. Websites need to be very clear about what cookies they are using and why, and ensure that users have a choice.

How does HERC use cookies?

We are committed to protecting your personal information when you're using our website, and to providing users with a clear understanding of how and why we use cookies. We use a variety of cookies to perform different functions. Cookies help us to arrange the content and layout of our site and recognise those computers that have been to our site before, therefore playing an important role in helping us to enhance the usability and performance of our site. They help us to identify which of our pages are the most popular and what type of journey a visitor has through our site.

Can I opt out of cookies?

Yes. There are a number of options available. You can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to only allow “trusted” sites to set them, or to accept only those cookies from those websites which you are currently on. However, please note – if you do delete all your cookies, some features of our website will not function as a result.

Will you pass my information on to other companies?

We do use other companies to process your data on our behalf, to ensure that we can fulfil all our obligations to you. We only choose those companies who prioritise the protection of personal data and who pass the strict organisational and technical security standards that we set. These companies include those who help us host our websites. The only other times we will pass your details to anyone else would be where we have to for fraud or other legal purposes. We do not pass your details (email, address, telephone, IP address, cookie details etc.) to any third parties for marketing purposes.

How long will we keep this information about you?

We will only keep information about you for as long as we need to. We make sure that any companies which process your data on our behalf do the same. We have an internal retention policy where there are varying retention periods for different categories of information depending on our legal obligations and whether there is an administrative need, such as answering member queries.

After a retention period has elapsed, the data is deleted or archived.

Access to your information and correction

If you would like a copy of some or all of the information we hold about you, please write to the Hertfordshire Environmental Records Centre, Grebe House, St Michael's Street, St Albans, AL3 4SN.

Other websites

Our website may contain links to the websites of other organisations. This privacy policy only applies to our websites, so if you click on a link to an external site you should read their own privacy policies and terms and conditions. We cannot accept any responsibility for your use of these websites.

What if I’m aged 16 or under?

If this applies to you, please get permission from a parent/guardian before you supply us with any personal information.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage.

How to contact us

If you would like further information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of your information and your rights to access information we hold on you, please contact us at Herts Environmental Records Centre, Grebe House, St Michael's Street, St Albans, AL3 4SN.